River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-12-29

School aids are indispensable to teach
ers in all grades, and to those who are
struggling in the school-room without
any. or with a very few, allow me to
suggest a plan that l have tried and
which works nicely. That is, if the
school district will not furnish all the
aids you wish to have. Furnish them
yourself and take them with you when
you leave the district. Undoubtedly
some of you will say / cannot afford TO do
SO; it will be too expensive. Let me say
TO those that the expense is trifling COM
pared to the help which such aids will be
to you, and not that alone, but the i'm
preston which you will leave upon the
people of the district, { you have used
your aids with success, viii be more to
you than all the expense incurred. You
will in time hear remarks something like
the following: What wonderful teach
er he is. We want him for our school,
etc. The next question will be: Where
can we procure these aids SO cheaply?
The answer is by following the plan
which did. In the school where | am
teaching at present, we have Harper's
readers and charts which are the same
as the old Wilson's series. did not like
the charts and concluded to make a set.
/ went to the store and bought seventeen
sheets of white wrapping paper, two feet
wide and three feet long, for which l
gave the large sum of nine cents. Then
| selected pictures suitable for children
from newspapers, magazines, etc. and
pasted one upon each sheet of paper near
the upper left hand corner. Then |
printed the names Of the objects found in
the picture, in the space ON the right
hand side of the same, and also below;
taking all the space necessary for the
words. After each printed word also
wrote the word and taught the same in
connection with the printed one. Then
L printed short story about the picture,
which | had the pupils read after men,
orizing the single words above. All of
the words used in the story ON the first
chart were printed and written singly
above the story. On the other charts on
" the new words used in each story
were treated in this way. The charts are
in regular order and each one
has border which can be made to suit
the taste. The cover has a border the
same as the charts and the upper half is
with the words Reading Charts
printed in large capitals, the lower half
has a large picture pasted on 1T. l find
that my little pupils manifest deep in
terest in the charts, and are rapidly
learning to read. For the Middle and
Upper Forms use supplementary reading.
When you find an exceedingly interest
ing story or anecdote in a newspaper
suitable for school use, clip it out, cut it
up into short paragraphs, paste these up
on cardboard slips, number them, dis
tribute them to your class, and let each
pupil read one slip in regular order; l
find it creates great interest. In regard
to aids in other branches | will state that
| purchased for fifty cents small, mount
ed, paper globe, which served as well as
a larger one in schools where | did not
find globe, also horseshoe magnet for
thirty cents with which l illustrate the
power of the earth. In prima-
ry arithmetic l use splints and other OBJ
jects, closely following Grube's method.
To those not having that little work, |
will say that you can get the same from
J. r. Holcomb & Co. of Cleveland, Ohio,
for thirty cents. Time and space de-
mands that must bring this article to a
close, and in conclusion will say that no
teacher can very well get along without
aids. But, be it understood
that / do not wish to have the teacher
furnish all of the apparatus used in the
BY no means. First try
every honorable way that you can to in
duce the school board TO get these aids
for you, then when they will not, do the
next best thing-get them yourself, and
having the right kind of energy you will
certainly succeed.
Yours in the work,
s. Z. IRVINE.